Wen Ruoxu was known for his bad luck. He always failed the imperial examinations and lost money in business. It had never occurred to him that his luck would take a dramatic turn as he embarked on a sea journey with his friends....

文若虚是一个出名的倒霉蛋，考学考不上，做生意赔钱。他和朋友一起出海去散心，没想到却碰上了从来没有过的好运气 ...

Preface

For students who study Chinese as a foreign language, it’s crucial for them to enlarge the scope of their reading to improve their comprehension skills. The Rainbow Bridge Graded Chinese Reader series is designed to provide a collection of interesting and useful Chinese reading materials. This series grades each volume by its vocabulary level and brings the learners into every scene through vivid storytelling. The series has the following features:

1. A gradual approach by grading the volumes based on vocabulary levels. We have consulted the New HSK Vocabulary (2012 Revised Edition), the Graded Chinese Syllables, Characters and Words for the Application of Teaching Chinese Syllables of Other Languages (National Standard) and the 1500 Commonly Used High Frequency Chinese Vocabulary, along with the European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to design the Rainbow Bridge vocabulary grading standard. This series is divided into seven levels (Starter, Level 1 to Level 6) for students at different stages in their Chinese education to choose from. For each level, new words are no more than 20% of the vocabulary amount as specified in the corresponding HSK and CEFR levels. As the levels progress, the passage length will in turn increase. The following table indicates the corresponding Rainbow Bridge level, HSK and CEFR levels, the vocabulary amount, and number of characters.

2. Intriguing stories on various themes. This series features engaging stories known for their twists and turns as well as deeply touching plots. The readers will find it a joyful experience to read the stories. The topics are selected from Chinese mythology, legends, folklore, literary classics, biographies of renowned people and historical tales. Such widely ranged topics would exert an invisible, yet formative, influence on readers’ understanding of Chinese culture and history.
3. Reasonably structured and easy to use. For each volume of the Rainbow Bridge series, apart from a Chinese story, we also provide an introduction to the main characters in Chinese and English, new words with English explanations and sample sentences, and an English translation of the story, followed by comprehension exercises and a vocabulary list to help users read and understand the story and improve their Chinese reading skills. The exercises are mainly presented as objective questions that take on various forms with moderate difficulty. Moreover, keys to the exercises are also provided. The series can be used by teachers in class or by students for self-study.